Bob is a very good name, in spite of being a very common one. The first Bob I knew was also a Robert one of my best friends when I was in elementary school. He was a Filipino in a small town in California where there were more Filipinos, Mexicans and Portuguese than anything else. My mother and I were outsiders in that respect, but my step father grew up speaking Portuguese in the Azores Islands [possession of Portugal in the Atlantic Ocean] and already knew a lot of the locals when we moved there some time after the end of WWII .There was one very large old Catholic Mission [from 1797] and only one small Protestant church. The other major denomination represented in school was Mormon [LDS] but they all of lived several miles out of town close to their church building. There were no other religious groups or denominations at all unless it were Buddhist. We had a few Chinese and Japanese.
That was the first Bob I recall but there were several others I have known over the years in many different places. None were bad guys from what I remember. I guess you won't set any new precedents on that...
Yes, instruction is needed and God gave us instructors. I don't believe He has let up on that...
''And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;" Eph 4:11-14
I guess until we have been perfected then the ministers from God are still needed. Unfortunately many who are called ministers, do not really minister in according with their calling. Then again there many claiming the position who probably were never called to it...
Who has already been so perfected?
Help us dear Lord!
P.S. Please keep me and my wife in prayer. I have always been her primary caregiver due to her severely compromised immune system but now it is me with pneumonia and her having to do things I have been doing.